I like a bit of fresh air in the morning (if you can call the air in Shanghai fresh of course), but taxi drivers seem to be much bigger fans than I am. Whatever temperature it is, and whether it rains or not, they tend to open at least one window during the ride.

This morning was an extreme case: the driver that came to my place to pick me up, was sitting in his car reading the newspaper with all four windows open. And it was only 3 degrees outside! I assumed he would put the windows up when driving off, but I was wrong. In order not to end up with pneunomia I decided to do close the windows in the back seat myself and I asked the driver to do the same with the front ones. He reluctantly did so, but left his own window half open. Some things I will probably never understand.

Whether he likes it or not, Toodou’s Gary Wang is becoming a real star in China. This month he was featured in the Chinese version of Esquire magazine, in an article about Web2.0. The picture from the article can be found here. Esquire’s website is here. That reminds me, I don’t have your autograph yet Gary!

Several foreign companies have been the victim of fraud in China according to the Dutch embassy website. What happened is that these companies receive a proposal for a large order from a Chinese company that they have never done business with before. They are then asked to come to China to sign the contract for this order. Once in China they need to pay for dinners, presents and some ‘administrative fees’. But after that the Chinese partner suddenly disappears, or after the business person is back home he is not able to contact the Chinese party anymore.

I am not surprised about this, although it certainly is the exception rather than the rule. So many foreign companies seem to think that doing business in China is just like doing business at home. But although some aspects are the same, this is not a country where you will sign a contract during a first trip, and certainly not if you get to know a company over the internet.

I heard several similar stories over the past years, and I always wonder why these foreign companies do not prepare themselves a bit more in order to make sure that they are not being fooled. It is not so very difficult to check out your business partner in China, and some advice before or during negotiations can save you tons of money and frustration. My company China Bay (www.china-bay.com, email: info@china-bay.com) can help with this, or you can ask your embassy in China to provide you with names of consultancy or law firms that provide this kind of services. Don’t be afraid to do business in China, just be well prepared!

The Rolling Stones plan to give a concert in Shanghai next month. There will be one show on April 8, on the Shanghai Grand Stage. Prices for the 8000-people event range from RMB 300 to RMB 3000. The last time the Stones planned to play in mainland China was in 2003, but then the concert was cancelled because of SARS.

A villager from central China whose daughter was murdered 6 years ago, kept her body in a refrigator for all that time. He felt the criminal responsible for the murder did not get enough punishment, so what do you do then? Simple, you travel to Beijing with the corpse and tie it to a 10-meter high billboard in the Chaoyang business district during the Monday morning rush hour. After 2 hours (!) witnesses called the police, who would investigate the matter.

Update: sina.com has some pictures (via Shanghaiist)

Shanghai has a total of around 1000 hidden traffic cameras aimed at speeders, according to an article in today’s Shanghai Daily. That seems a huge amount to me, even though the city is very big. The most famous camera is the one on the road from Hongqiao airport to Yan’an Lu where taxi drivers slow down to about 20 km/h in order to avoid a fine, and after that speed up to 100 km/h again. But during my travels through the city I have only seen very few others, so they must be hidden very well!

I wonder if the article is confusing speed cameras with normal cameras that record the traffic flow and what’s happening on the street. I am aware that most big roads in Shanghai have cameras that allow police to see what’s happening all over the city. Last year I visited Guangdong Radio, and in the studio we were shown part of the system: you could name a road or intersection and with one click you were shown the cars and people there. You could even zoom in! Since then I have noted these cameras all over the place, so I think that these are the cameras that the Shanghai Daily mentions.

China will relax its regulations for night flights reports the Shanghai Daily. Bad news for residents living close to airports, but good news for travellers. Flights are now allowed to take off or arrive from 6 AM in the morning until 2 AM at night. But the change will likely not affect schedules for the next 6 months, because these have already been made. Hopefully there will finally be late night flights from Beijing to Shanghai, so you can have an (early) dinner in Beijing and still make it home at night in Shanghai.

The stated reason for the change is that the fleets of Chinese airlines are increasing rapidly, and more timeslots are needed. The other reason mentioned is that there have been ‘recent years of safe operation’ (the ban for night flights was originally introduced because of safety reasons). Years of safe operation? The last plane crash in China was only 15 months ago (China Eastern from Baotou to Shanghai)!